By month’s end, the City Council is likely to either ban or mandate the recycling of foam products like take-out containers. Both “solutions” have more to do with pandering to ignorance than with solving an actual problem.

Yes, foam, a k a “expanded polystyrene,” takes up space in landfills, which costs the city money — but that’s true of all garbage. And foam is less than 2 percent of the waste stream, hardly a huge offender.

For the record, polystyrene packaging uses up fewer resources (including water and power) than the paper wrapping that would substitute for it. That’s why paper takeout containers cost nearly four times as much.

Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia rejects the idea of recycling foam trash as not “economically feasible” — plainly unconcerned about the cost a ban would impose on struggling small businesses.

Also for the record, there is a market for recycled polystyrene: If Garcia is truly concerned about keeping the stuff out of landfills, she could take a closer look at the option.

But that question surely deserves more study: When it comes to doing anything about the “foam problem,” city legislators would do their best, most responsible work by doing nothing.